Many of you know my story from following my ups and downs and adventures on Twitter @RobertCheeke, but for those who don't, I'll bring you up to speed.

I became vegan in 1995 as a 120 pound skinny farm kid. Years later I was a 195-pound champion vegan bodybuilder. I created this website 10 years ago, wrote a book titled Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness, and toured the past 6 years for Vega and past 2 years for my book.

Why a comeback? In March of 2011, a short 10 months ago, as I was poised to get back on the competition stage for the first time since 2009 (when I wrote my book and toured ever since), I suffered a couple of injuries. Ten months later, neither injury (chest and abdominals) has fully recovered, but I am still able to train most muscle groups.

While on tour recently my weight dropped to the 160s. I hadn't weighed that small of an amount since my pre-bodybuilding running days. Two months ago I made a return to training. I'm limited in some ways due to lingering soreness/injuries, but not in areas of drive, passion and dedication. I'm back over 170lbs and should be back in the 190s in a matter of months and plan to get on stage in the summer of 2012 to take on people including the rising star in Vegan Bodybuilding Derek Tresize.

I'm back!

Thank you to all of you who are members of this website forum. Your presence here really means a lot!

I'll be keeping a journal here for sure! I've had many in the past, one that is over 75 or 80 pages long, listed a few pages back in the archives.

This is my 2012 journal. I worked on this online fitness program until 4AM, didn't sleep much or well at all, but I've been up for 2 hours now working away on the site, had my Vega drink, eating some bananas, will do a few chores out on the farm where I'm staying currently and head to the gym for some compound movements!

I've been working non-stop, so though I trained 5 hours ago, I'm just now getting to my journal update. I just realized that today's workout was the last of the year! I don't really care about such things, dates, birthdays, holidays, etc. I just kinda work all the time and enjoy doing so immensely.

But on this day, it's hard to ignore it's the last day of the year. I was up until 4AM and only slept about 3.5-4 hours total last night. It was my 7th consecutive day working until 3AM or later, putting the final touches on this online training program.

When I got to the gym I was pumped up and motivated to begin Derek Tresize's Mass Program, which is in today's featured article for 12 Days, and which I said I would begin in 2012. As I arrived at the gym I realized my legs and back were still a little sore from my recent back and leg workouts days ago.

I still thought about doing the workout as I warmed up, but decided to allow intelligence, not toughness, to take over. On only a few hours of sleep and with sore muscles, I opted to train arms instead of walk over to the deadlift station and begin tossing heavy weights around. It isn't even 7PM yet on New Year's Eve and I'm in bed, hopefully sleeping soon. As I catch up on sleep, I'll begin compound mass-building workouts tomorrow.

Today's workout looked like this:

Warm-up 8 minutes on the stair stepper5 sets of rope triceps extensions x 10-20 reps each set with 60, 70 and 80 pounds5 sets of cable biceps curls x 10-20 reps each set with 60, 70 and 80 pounds

Yeah, I'll try to post weights. For today, curls were with 32.5s, 35s and 40s, kickbacks around 22.5, 27.5, 32.5. Overhead 65 and 70. I can go back and update it later on and moving forward I'll include weights.

Don't be surprised when you see me squatting 85lbs

Returning from injuries so not using a whole lot of weight. Deadlifting around 140 pounds, no benching, and managing what I can

Yeah, I'll try to post weights. For today, curls were with 32.5s, 35s and 40s, kickbacks around 22.5, 27.5, 32.5. Overhead 65 and 70. I can go back and update it later on and moving forward I'll include weights.

Don't be surprised when you see me squatting 85lbs

Returning from injuries so not using a whole lot of weight. Deadlifting around 140 pounds, no benching, and managing what I can

Coming back safely with my past injury history.

Good to see you back on logging your workouts Rob!I couldn't imagine having to come back from an injury, it must be dreadful. All in all, I wish you all the best and a speedy recovery!

Bodyweight = 170.5lbs - Which is less than I thought I weighed right now. Lots of work ahead of me!

I'm starting the New Year out by focusing on compound lifts, primarily inspired by Derek Tresize and his Mass-Building article, and my own desire to bulk up, add mass and strength and ultimately get the most out of my workouts.

I returned to training about 2 months ago, after many months off due to injuries and extensive travel, and now that I've been through all the cable, machine, bodyweight and free weight exercises over the past couple of months and have added 6-8 pounds while reclaiming some strength, I'm ready for the total-body blasts of compound free weight lifts.

I was following this compound lift schedule last year at this exact time in January, weighing in the 190's and benching 300 pounds on free weight decline bench, while doing cleans and deadlifts, squats, etc. before I hurt myself and was sidelined for many months. Now I'm back.

My enthusiasm has already gone up due to this program! How about you? For example, knowing I was going to have to post my workout publicly, I did more than an 8-minute warm-up (compared to yesterday) and I pushed myself and lifted a lot more than I expected I would have, coming back from these injuries and not having done this power movements in some time. I even carried a piece of paper with me to record my workout, something I rarely have ever done in my life, and surely not in the past 10 years.

Here is what today's workout looked like.

As usual, I prepared my Vega energy drink and had bananas just before my workout and drink the Vega sport drink throughout.

Workout:

Climbed on the Stair Master for 20 minutes

3 sets of bodyweight squats and lots of stretching and loosening up many muscle groups and joints.

(I am taking a more serious and intelligent approach as an athlete these days, and I spent 30 minutes preparing before I even began using weights).

Deadlifts - *Note, I have a history of low back issues and I am starting out light, so the weight is sure to underwhelm you, but I anticipate it going up as I comfortably ease into it at my desired pace*

I used weights listed as Kilos so the "pounds" will seem like strange numbers, though for Kilos they are even numbers.

Since I just trained shoulders 2 days ago and wasn't prepared to do squats, I opted for another compound movement as I was unracking the bar from doing deadlifts. I left 89lbs on and began a series of barbell bent-over rows:

16 sets of power movements. I know I stick with one exercise for many more sets than most people, but I prefer to pick the exercises for certain muscle groups I feel like I can get the most benefit from and do many sets. I do the same with squats. Why do 4 sets of squats and 4 sets of a leg extension, when you can do 8 sets of squats varrying foot position, pace or dept and get better ROI from the workout?

After the workout I took a very hot shower to get a lot of heat on my back.

I had a Vega Sport protein drink and a banana and drove home. At home I immediately had a green salad with 1/2 of a large avocado and some tofu thing I got from Trader Joes which I did not like at all and will give to the dog. I also had some Ezekial bread and will likely go eat again soon.

I'll see how my back feels tomorrow and choose to do squats and overhead press, or some other multi-joint compound lift combination.